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Wisdom is the mind's eye, by which she wyeth into all the secrets of nature and mysteries of State, and discerneth between good and evil, and prudently guideth all the affairs of life, as the helm doth a ship. She is the chief of the four cardinal virtues; and may rightly be termed the hinge that turns them all about. There are these four virtues — wisdom to direct, justice to correct, temperance to abstain, fortitude to sustain. Wisdom giveth a good relish to virtue. Discretion is the salt of all our actions, without which nothing that is done or spoken is savoury. What doth pregnancy of wit, or maturity of judgment, or felicity of memory, or variety of reading, or multiplicity of observation, or gracefulness of delivery, speed a man that wanteth wisdom and discretion to use them? In Scriptures a fourfold wisdom is mentioned. Godly wisdom is piety. Worldly wisdom is policy. Fleshly wisdom is sensuality. Devilish wisdom is mischievous subtlety. Of this heavenly light, this godly wisdom, we will display four beams —

1. To begin with our end, and to provide for our eternal estate after this life, in the first place.

2. To inform ourselves certainly how we stand in the court of heaven: whether God's countenance shine upon us, or there be a cloud betwixt it and us.

3. To consider what infirmities or maladies of mind our natural constitution, state, place, or profession, or course of life maketh us most subject unto, and to furnish ourselves with store of remedies against them. To mark where we lie most open to temptation, and there to have our watch ready.

4. To observe the carriage of all affairs in this great city of the world, and to set a mark upon God's wonderful protection and care over the godly, and His fearful judgments upon the wicked.

(D. Featley, D. D.)

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KJV: Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

WEB: Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.